Tuesday, September 19, 2006

From Extreme Joy to Sadness to Joy Again



Last night was one of the most incredible experiences I have had in my life. My friend, Adam, and I attended the Dodger game against the San Diego Padres. If you already do not know what happened in that game, then I wonder if you pay attention to the news at all. The game started out with a bumming four runs in the first inning, and we were thinking, "oh great, we have to make up a lot of ground" Well, by the time we got to the ninth inning, we were losing 6-5, and it was a great game of comebacks and letdowns. However, in the ninth inning, our closer gave up three runs, putting us in an insurmountable hole losing 9-5. After that half of the inning ended, we considered leaving, but decided we might as well stick it out. The ninth inning starts with Kent walking up to the plate, and hey, he hits a homerun. I remember thinking that Kent showed up, he did his job, so can't complain there. Then with J.D. Drew at the plate, I watched him hit a monster homerun into the right field pavilion...I mean this thing was gone. So, now we are only down by two, pretty pumped about the lead being cut to two, but now Trevor Hoffman is coming to pitch. I fear Trevor, he is pretty much lights out when it comes to closing a game. So, on the first pitch to our rookie catcher, I watch the ball fly into the left field pavilion stands. Back to Back to Back homeruns. I am jumping up and down at this point. I have never seen this. The crowd is going nuts, we are all screaming or heads off. Up walks Marlon Anderson, and I am screaming "hit the ball out, hit the ball out of here". First pitch, GONE. BACK to BACK to BACK to BACK homeruns to tie the game. I feel the most electric joy I have ever felt. I am running up and down the aisles, high-fiving complete strangers with goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes. We just tied the game and now we are certain to win. The inning ends with three quick outs, not without a little excitement as Furcal flirts with hitting the fifth homerun out for the win...man I wanted that to happen. In the tenth inning the joy went straight down to despair. We gave up another run, so now we are losing again, and I am thinking, how can we lose this game after all that? As the teams are changing sides, I turn to my friend and I say, "Lofton needs to walk, and Nomar needs to send us the hell home with one swing, because I can't take this anymore". It happened, we went nuts, and I barely slept the whole night...oh, and I can't stop talking or thinking about it today. I don't think people can truly understand what it was like...except for the people there.